December chip sales seen 18% down Y/Y

LONDON  The three-month moving average of global chip sales in December is expected to come in at $18.3 billion, compared to the $ 20.8 billion achieved the previous month, down 18 percent year-on-year, according to researchers at banking group Carnegie Investment Bank (Oslo, Norway).

The actual sales should be down 21 percent year-on-year for the last month of 2008, a slight improvement on the 22.5 percent fall seen in November, and, according to Carnegie, helped by some stability in memory chips.

The official figures from the World Semiconductors Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization are expected to be released late next week.

Carnegie is still sticking to its earlier forecast of an 8 percent fall in chip sales for 2009, expressed in dollar terms, compared with a 2 percent decline for this year.

Some key points in Carnegie's analysis of the market suggests world handset production fell 15-20 percent year-on-year in December, slightly better than November, and that Chinese exports of technology-based gear will be down by 10 percent for last month.

The passive components is seen particularly badly hit, down 26 percent year-on-year in December, while Japanese tech spending is said to be slowing in most segments.